


Faith

by valda



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Action, Character Study, Kyber Crystals, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Starkiller Base, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 20:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12261795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valda/pseuds/valda
Summary: General Hux doesn't understand Kylo Ren's interest in kyber crystals. At least, not beyond using them to intensify superweapons. An incident on Starkiller Base doesn't quite answer his questions, but it does underscore the way he and his co-commander complement one another.





	Faith

**Author's Note:**

> Also on Tumblr [here](http://cosleia.tumblr.com/post/165956417473/faith).

One of the many things Hux and Ren disagreed on was the proper use for kyber crystals.

The stones were scarce. Apart from the occasional fluke discovery of a vein of kyberite somewhere—the sort of rare event that put Hux in mind of the Spice Rush from his Academy history lessons—they were not easy to come by. Ilum’s kyber reserves had been thoroughly indexed when the Order first set out to convert the former Jedi holy planet to a superweapon, and that and the secret Imperial stores recovered from Coruscant were likely the most kyber the First Order would ever possess at one time.

Ren wanted to hoard it. Of course, kyber was necessary in the construction of lightsabers, but Ren wouldn’t need much of the First Order’s supply for that. No, Ren claimed kyber had other properties that made it useful, even to non-Force users, and he therefore wished to maintain a stockpile.

Hux only cared about the property that made kyber suitable for focusing beam weapons—the property that had brought down the treacherous planet Alderaan and would someday bring down the sham Republic itself. And Leader Snoke was on his side in this debate. The First Order’s side. It was only natural; Starkiller had been in the planning stages before the First Order even existed. It would be the greatest legacy of the Empire. Hux himself would see to that.

The kyber, then, would be directed toward the noble and vital purpose of focusing and intensifying the power of First Order weaponry, from the ventral cannons on Hux’s flagship to Starkiller itself.

“It grows,” Ren had argued, disagreeing with Hux in the presence of Leader Snoke like the child he was, “but it doesn’t replenish itself fast enough to use it in the way you’re proposing. You’ll use it up.”

“We’ll restore the Empire before we get through our kyber stores,” Hux had fired back. “Once that happens, the weapons will serve as deterrents; we won’t need as much kyber, and that will give it time to replenish.”

Ren had looked as though he wanted to say something else; his unmasked face could be startlingly emotive. But he remained silent, and Supreme Leader Snoke had spoken, and at the words of his master Ren had backed down.

Now, though, they were not in audience with Leader Snoke. They stood outside the control center on Ilum—Starkiller—and watched as technicians and construction droids continued their work on the cavernous cylinder leading to the heart of the planet, where the energy of a star would be stored. The focusing crystals lay there too, ready to ignite the beam. They were some of the largest kyber crystals known to ever exist, carefully faceted for optimal intensity. (Ren had also done something to them on Leader Snoke’s command, something about their “lattices,” but Hux still wasn’t sure what purpose that served. Tests indicated that nothing about their potential yield had changed. Ren claimed Hux and his team didn’t know what to test for, and maddeningly, if predictably, he did not see fit to advise.)

Ren huffed a sigh through his mask, and Hux glanced sideways at him. He wasn’t even sure why the Force-user was here. Ren didn’t usually attend inspections or observe the crew. Hux wondered if there was even a point in asking.

“Something will happen,” Ren said, “and I need to be here to fix it.”

Now Hux turned fully, hands going to his hips. “What are you implying?”

Ren shook his head. “No treachery. No malice. No carelessness, for that matter. Just something unexpected.”

“If you know that much, can’t you stop whatever it is before it happens?”

“That would be unwise. It would change events enough that I wouldn’t see what new problems might arise in time to stop them.”

Hux stared at him a moment, then let his hands fall back to his sides. “I see. Any danger to the schedule?”

“Not if I stop it fast enough.”

Hux cocked his head to one side. “Any danger to my people?”

Ren turned his helmeted head to face him. “Yes.”

Hux felt his cheek twitch. “I’ll thank you to keep casualties to a minimum.”

“You should have more faith in me.”

A low rumbling interrupted whatever Hux might have said in response. Then the ground was shaking beneath their feet.

“It’s begun,” Ren said, and with that he took off across the snowy plain at a run. Hux watched, mesmerized, as the dark blotch that was Ren practically flew over the shimmering white field. Ren didn’t slow when he reached the barrel. Instead he leapt forward and dove straight into it.

Hux blinked.

After a moment, his comlink buzzed. “Sir?” asked the lead technician. “Should we cease activity until Ren is…finished?”

The shaking was intensifying; Hux heard a large clump of snow shake loose from the roof of the command center and fall heavily to the ground. “Suspend operations until this groundquake is over,” he replied. “And take proper cover.”

Hux stumbled into the command center and went straight to the control room for a status update. Lt. Rodinon turned at his approach. “Sir, it’s the veins of kyberite descending to the planetary core. They’re…shifting.”

“Ah,” Hux said. “Did something happen to them?”

“It looks like there was a small vein we didn’t expect in this area,” Rodinon said, pulling up a holodisplay and gesturing toward a spot deep underground, close to the barrel of the weapon. “A pair of technicians accidentally drilled into it during the reinforcement process.”

“Status of the technicians?”

“Uninjured, sir. Kylo Ren is with them.”

“What’s Ren doing now?”

Rodinon spoke briefly into his comm, and the technician’s response came back in an electronic squawk: “He’s taken off a glove and is touching the kyberite with his bare hand. He’s just standing there.”

“Sir,” Rodinon added, looking at his console, “the kyberite veins seem to be settling. Slowing down.”

Indeed, the shaking was starting to subside; Hux no longer needed to subtly brace himself against computer equipment to avoid falling into the operator trench. In moments even the low rumble was gone.

“It’s done, General,” Ren’s voice crackled over Rodinon’s comm. “It shouldn’t happen again, now that your people know where not to drill.”

“ _What’s_  done?” Hux asked, but he knew it was futile. And, sure enough:

“He’s gone,” the technician said. “He just…jumped. Up. And kicked off the far side of the barrel, and jumped up again. He’s just…”

“That’ll be all, petty officer,” Hux said. He imagined Ren rebounding his way up the barrel of the weapon, robes flowing behind him. The man must look like some sort of dark creature. A predator. Which he was, Hux supposed.

Hux wondered what Ren would do, now that he’d “fixed” the problem he’d foreseen. Go back to training, perhaps. Or meditation. Whatever he did when he wasn’t on mission. He wondered what Ren had done to the kyberite. He wondered why the kyberite had reacted so violently to being drilled into—surely it wasn’t damaged; kyber was astonishingly strong.

There was too much Hux didn’t know, but he did know one thing: Ren certainly wasn’t going to answer his questions.

Sighing, Hux handed off command to Colonel Datoo and headed back outside, wishing that more Imperial records had survived the war.

When he returned to the viewing platform he was surprised to find Ren there. The man wasn’t even breathing hard. “Are you really human?” Hux asked, though of course he knew he was.

Ren was standing with his arms crossed, surveying the worksite as if he were commanding it. He didn’t bother to turn his head. “Yes.”

Hux huffed out a laugh. “I don’t suppose you’ll enlighten me about what you did down there,” he said.

“The drilling knocked part of the lattice out of night alignment,” Ren said. “This started to spread to the rest of the kyberite. If it had all managed to shift back to day alignment, things would have been much worse.”

“That procedure you did in the beginning,” Hux said. “Why would it be affected by drilling?”

Ren turned his masked face toward Hux. “It wants to be in day alignment. That’s its natural state. The vibration of the drill shook it enough to let it force the lattice back.”

Hux blinked at him. “You’re speaking as though it’s alive.”

“It is.”

“As though it’s sentient.”

“It is.”

Hux blinked again. “You can’t be serious.”

Ren turned away. “I’m not sure why you even bother to ask, General, when you never seem to like the answer.”

At that, Hux made a noncommittal noise. It wasn’t that he didn’t  _like_ Ren’s answers so much as Ren’s answers were never satisfactory. They were esoteric and vague and tended to be completely useless from a practical standpoint. What could Hux possibly do with the knowledge that kyber could think and that Ren could apparently brainwash it using the Force? The Force itself made no sense; if it had ever been quantifiable, measurable, useful, those records had been lost, and now it was a religion, a matter of faith.

Hux didn’t have faith. Not blind faith, anyway. Certainly not in cryptic aphorisms spouted by unthinking acolytes.

He regarded Ren. The Force may not be usable for Hux—yet, perhaps one day he would connect these seemingly random dots—but it certainly existed, and Ren was capable of using it. And Hux knew Ren—knew where he came from, what he was, what he could do, why he was here. Ren’s purpose was noble. He’d inherited a powerful legacy from the Empire, just as the First Order had inherited Starkiller.

Ren had never yet failed in a mission. With his abilities, he would help Hux prove the might of the First Order. They may never understand each other’s methods, and they would certainly continue to disagree, but ultimately, together Ren and Hux would destroy the Resistance, and the Republic.

Hux smiled thinly and turned his attention back to the construction of the grand cannon. Perhaps he had some measure of faith after all.


End file.
